Pluggable Architecture for Performance of Pricing Operations

ABSTRACT

Embodiments are directed to a pluggable architecture for performance of pricing operations. An embodiment of a storage medium includes instructions for installing multiple pricing methods at a pricing service including a pluggable architecture for pricing methods, each pricing method including a set of pricing functions; receiving a pricing request for a sales transaction including one or more sales items, the pricing request including a pricing context for each sales item; and performing a price calculation for the sales transaction, including resolving a pricing method for each sales item, applying the set of pricing functions for the resolved pricing method for each sales item, the application of the set of pricing functions being based at least in part on the pricing context for the sales item, calculating a price for each sales item based upon an outcome of the pricing functions, and aggregating the calculated prices for the sales items.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments relate to techniques for computer operations. Moreparticularly, embodiments relate to a pluggable architecture forperformance of pricing operations.

BACKGROUND

In business operations, the generation of pricing is often acomputationally intensive task. Each sales item of a large sales orderor other pricing transaction may require a different pricing method,with each method requiring numerous processes.

In providing support for client pricing operations, a central pricingengine architecture can provide efficient and effective pricingoperations for multiple clients without requiring the support of aninternal pricing structure for each such client, thereby greatlybenefiting client operations.

However, establishing or modifying the pricing for a particular clientcan require significant programming overhead for a pricing engine. Aconventional pricing platform incorporates the pricing algorithmutilized to generate pricing within the pricing engine itself. As aresult, the pricing platform needs to be programmed with each client'spricing operation, and needs to be modified when a pricing algorithm isadded or modified for the client.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments are illustrated by way of example, and not by way oflimitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which likereference numerals refer to similar elements.

FIG. 1 is an illustration of a computing platform including a pluggablepricing architecture according to some embodiments;

FIG. 2 is an illustration of a computing platform including a standardpricing method for a pluggable pricing architecture according to someembodiments;

FIG. 3 is an illustration of a computing platform including a custompricing method for a pluggable pricing architecture according to someembodiments;

FIG. 4 illustrates a price waterfall for calculation of pricing for asales item utilizing a particular pricing method;

FIG. 5 illustrates a price waterfall including pricing functions of apricing method for calculation of pricing for a sales item;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart to illustrate a process for pricing utilizing apricing service according to some embodiments;

FIG. 7 illustrates a block diagram of an environment in which apluggable architecture for performance of pricing operations may beimplemented according to some embodiments; and

FIG. 8 illustrates further details of an environment in which apluggable architecture for performance of pricing operations may beimplemented according to some embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth.However, embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. Inother instances, well-known circuits, structures and techniques have notbeen shown in detail in order not to obscure the understanding of thisdescription.

In some embodiments, an apparatus, system, or process is to provide fora pluggable architecture for performance of pricing operations. Incontrast with a conventional pricing framework that incorporates apricing algorithm for a client's pricing operation within the pricingengine (which may also be referred to herein as the host pricing engineor similar term), and thus must be modified when a pricing algorithm isadded or modified, a pricing platform is implemented as a pluggableframework that enables incremental development of both internal pricingconstructs as well as custom pricing constructs defined by partners,independent software vendors (ISVs), or customers (which may generallybe referred to herein as clients). Pricing logic (referred to as apricing method) is implemented as a plugin to the pricing engine thatcan be selected by the client.

In some embodiments, a host pricing engine has no knowledge regardingthe pricing constructs that define the various pricing algorithms,allowing clients to define their own pricing constructs to suit theirspecific business needs without requiring modification of the pricingengine.

Further, the pricing framework both includes plugins for common usecases to be supported for multiple or all clients of the pricing engine(e.g., Standard Unit Price, Standard Term Price, or other standardpricing methods), and also allows customization of such standard pluginsto enable certain clients, such as large enterprises, industry partners,and customers with special requirements to make modifications to thepricing methods as needed. Each pricing method includes one or morestandard and/or custom pricing functions that can be modified orreplaced. A custom pricing function may, for example, allow access toexternal proprietary data or processes. As used herein, “standard”refers to a method or function can be made available to multiple or allclients of a pricing system, while “custom” refers to a method orfunction that is generated for a particular client, and may, forexample, utilize proprietary data or operations.

In some embodiments, a pricing platform includes the pluggable pricingengine supporting a pricing service. In this architecture, a pricingmethod defines the pricing for a particular sales item, with the pricingmethod plugging into the pricing platform. Each pricing method includesone or more pricing functions that define each operation that isperformed in the pricing method.

Prior to any price calculations for a pricing request, the pricingengine is to validate the input parameters for the request, and has theoption of pre-loading (for example, using cache storage) and validatingany required pricing related data (which may include Product andPricebookEntry data, discount schedules, and other data.) In the pricecalculation for each sales item, each sales item is processed by firstdetermining the appropriate pricing method from, such a determinationbased on the associated Product or PricebookEntry data or other similardata. Further, a context for calculating the sales item price isprepared and the appropriate pricing method (i.e., the pricing methodplugin, such as illustrated in FIGS. 1-3) is invoked, with the pricingmethod being passed with the sales item context.

In some embodiments, pricing methods for a pricing engine areimplemented as plugins to the pricing engine. As used herein, pricingmethod is comprised of an ordered set of pricing functions that definethe calculation of pricing for a sales item. A pricing function is acohesive logical pricing operation that defines a single process withina pricing method. Once the sales items in a particular pricing requesthave been priced according to the respective pricing method for eachsuch sales item, aggregate pricing may then be performed, with aggregatepricing including summarizing totals at a header level, etc., tocomplete the full pricing operation for the pricing request. The pricingresults may then be reported to the appropriate client.

As used herein, “sales transaction” refers to any sales order or inquiryfor one or more sales items, with each sales item including a certainquantity; “pricing plan” refers to calculations performed to generatepricing for the one or more sales item in a sales transaction; and“pricing flow” refers to the context for a particular pricing request.

FIG. 1 is an illustration of a computing platform including a pluggablepricing architecture according to some embodiments. As illustrated, acore computing platform 100 may provide multiple services including, butnot limited to, a pricing service 120 (the host pricing service) toprovide pricing operations for multiple different types of salesoperations for multiple clients. The core platform 100 may includenumerous other operations and functions that are not described herein.

The core platform 100 may include a public application programminginterface (API) 110 for connection of multiple different types ofclients that may generate operation requests, including requests to thepricing service 120. The pricing requests may include business tobusiness (B2B) requests 140 and configure-price-quote (CPQ) requests 142provided within the core platform 100, and partner or independentsoftware vendor (ISV) requests 144 received from outside the coreplatform 100. Other types of pricing requests may also be received.

The pricing service 120 in particular includes a getPrice function 130to determine pricing for one or more sales items in a sales transaction,the sales items being any combination of goods and services. In a basicoperation, the getPrice function for a particular request includesinitialization of the pricing operation 132, sales price calculation foreach sales item of the request 134, and aggregation of the pricingcalculations to generate a pricing output 136 to be provided to theclient. In some embodiments, the sale item price calculation 134includes resolving a pricing method for a sales item 150, wherein eachsales item may utilize a different pricing method, and selecting andrunning the appropriate pricing method 154 for the sales item.

In some embodiments, the pricing architecture is a pluggablearchitecture in which multiple different pricing methods may be pluggedfor use in one or more sale transactions. The pricing method for a salesitem may include a pricing method of one or more standard pricingmethods provided by the pricing service, or a particular custom pricingmethod of one or more custom pricing methods for the client. In aparticular example, the pricing methods available at particular point intime for a client utilizing the pricing service 120 are a Standard UnitPrice method 160, a Standard Term Price method 162, or a custom pricingmethod 166. In some embodiments, the standard pricing methods 160 and162 are available to multiple or all clients of the pricing service, andthe custom pricing method 166 is available only to a particular client,wherein the custom pricing method 166 may include confidential andexclusive features established by or for the client. Any number ofpricing methods may be available in a particular implementation. In someembodiments, pricing methods are plugged into the pricing service 120without requiring modification or reprogramming of the pricing service120, and such pricing methods may be replaced by other or differentpricing methods as required for all clients or any particular client orclients.

FIG. 2 is an illustration of a computing platform including a standardpricing method for a pluggable pricing architecture according to someembodiments. As illustrated, the core computing platform 100 includespricing service 120, with the pricing service 120 including the getPricefunction 130. The pricing methods to be plugged into the pluggablepricing architecture are a Standard Unit Price method 160, a StandardTerm Price method 162, and a custom pricing method 166.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, the Standard Unit Price method 160 includesmultiple pricing functions that performed as required in response to apricing request. In this particular example, the Standard Unit Pricemethod 160 includes the standard pricing functions: Get Produce ListPrice 271 represented by Java Class 281, Get Negotiated Price 272represented by Java Class 282, Get Customer Price 273 represented byJava Class 283, and continuing through Calculate Sales Items Totals 274represented by Java Class 284. In some embodiments, each of the Javaclasses 281-284 representing the standard pricing functions 271-274 areassociated with a pricing function interface 280.

As further depicted in FIG. 2, the Standard Unit Price method 160 iscomprised of an ordered sequence of logical processes that togethercomplete the price calculation for a given sales item, with each logicalprocess within the pricing method comprising a pricing function. In someembodiments, the pricing method is defined as metadata that declares theglobally unique name of the pricing method, a set of specific set ofpricing functions, the execution order of those pricing functions, andwhether or not each function is applicable within the context of aspecified Pricing Flow. For example, the FIG. 2 further illustrates aPricing Flow A and a Pricing Flow B, each of which define a particularset of the pricing functions as being applicable in the pricing flow.

FIG. 2 illustrates a particular standard pricing method composed ofstandard pricing functions. In some embodiments, a pricing service alsosupports one or most custom pricing methods, which may allow forfunctions including client specific pricing.

FIG. 3 is an illustration of a computing platform including a custompricing method for a pluggable pricing architecture according to someembodiments. As illustrated, the core computing platform 100 includespricing service 120, with the pricing service 120 including the getPricefunction 130. The pricing methods to be plugged into the pluggablepricing architecture are a Standard Unit Price method 160, a StandardTerm Price method 162, and a custom pricing method 166. FIG. 3specifically depicts a custom pricing method that leverages a singlecustom pricing function. However, embodiments are possible, in which anynumber of custom pricing functions may be utilized in a custom pricingmethod.

As illustrated in FIG. 3, the custom pricing method 166 includesmultiple pricing functions that performed as required in response to apricing request. In this particular example, the custom pricing method160 includes a mixture of custom and standard pricing functions, andspecifically one or more custom pricing functions 392 including a GetProduct List Price 371, which is represented by a custom Apex class 394to draw from an external ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system, thusallowing the client to utilize client-specific pricing data whileoperating within the pricing service 120. In this example, the custompricing function 371 is followed by standard functions: Get NegotiatedPrice 372 represented by Java Class 382, Get Customer Price 373represented by Java Class 383, and continuing through Calculate SalesItems Totals 374 represented by Java Class 384. In some embodiments, thecustom Apex class 394 for the custom pricing function is associated withpricing function Apex interface 390, while each of the Java classes382-384 representing the standard pricing functions 372-374 areassociated with a pricing function interface 380.

FIG. 4 illustrates a price waterfall for calculation of pricing for asales item utilizing a particular pricing method. The price waterfallprovides a pricing method decomposition diagram for a particular pricingmethod, which may be any pricing method plugged into a pricing service,such as pricing methods 160-166 plugged into getPrice function 130 inFIGS. 1-3. In the illustrated price waterfall, the price of a givenproduct is reflected on the ‘y’ axis (i.e., the vertical axis) and thevarious adjustments to the list price are represented on the ‘x’ axis(horizontal axis). The bars with cross-hatching represent pricereductions applied to the previous process in the price waterfall. Theshaded bars represent ‘price points’ and typically define the boundarybetween pricing functions that comprise the pricing method that resultsin this price waterfall.

In the illustrated example, commencing with the list price, there arediscount price reduction resulting in an invoice price; payment termsand consignment inventory price reductions resulting in the effectiveprice; freight, expediting, and custom bar coding price reductionsresulting in the net price; custom service and other price reductionsresulting in the pocket price; and the cost of goods sold (COGS)resulting in the pocket margin. Many other pricing reductions and pricepoints may be present in other examples.

FIG. 5 illustrates a price waterfall including pricing functions of apricing method for calculation of pricing for a sales item. FIG. 5provides a pricing method decomposition diagram that includes thestructure of FIG. 4, with the addition of exemplary pricing functionsthat make up the illustrated pricing method. A pricing function is acohesive unit of price calculation processing that performs a singlefunctional process within one or more pricing methods. In a particularimplementation, default pricing functions that are provided are writtenin a first format (Java) and adhere to a common ‘PricingFunction’ Javainterface, while custom pricing functions are written in a second format(Apex).

As diagram in FIG. 5 illustrates, the pricing functions that make up agiven pricing method are executed in sequence within the context of asales item and pricing flow. FIG. 5 illustrates the contribution of eachpricing function to the price waterfall associated with the pricingmethod, wherein the pricing functions in this particular example being:

Get List Price—Obtaining the List Price.

Calculate Invoice Price—Subtracting discounts from the List Price togenerate the Invoice Price.

Calculate Effective Price—Subtracting payment terms and consignmentinventory from the Invoice Price to generate the Effective Price.

Calculate Net Price—Subtracting freight, expediting, and custombarcoding from the Effective Price to generate the Net Price.

Calculate Pocket Price—Subtracting discounts from the List Price togenerate the Invoice Price.

In the price waterfall diagram provided in FIG. 5 the contribution eachpricing function makes to the pricing method's waterfall is depictedalong the ‘x’ axis, with the depicted price points representing thefinal output of each pricing function. The pricing functions are ordered(from left to right in FIG. 5) with regard to execution within theparticular pricing method. Each pricing function may contribute zero ormore intermediate price calculations (for example, Payment Terms andConsignment Inventory within the Calculate Effective Price function),and each pricing function has a final price point that represents thefinal price calculation for that pricing function.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart to illustrate a process for pricing utilizing apricing service according to some embodiments. In some embodiments, aprocess includes receiving a pricing request for a pricing transactionat a pricing service 604, wherein the pricing service may be pricingservice 120 within core platform 100 as illustrated in FIGS. 1-3. A getprice function is called 608 to perform pricing for the one or moresales items in the pricing transaction, such as getPrice 130 asillustrated in FIGS. 1-3.

The process may continue with initialization of the pricing algorithm616, and sales price calculation for each sales item in the pricingtransaction 620. Commencing with a first sales item, a pricing method isresolved for the pricing method 624, wherein the pricing method mayeither a standard pricing method or a custom pricing method, asillustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3, provided as plug in for the pricingservice. The pricing method is then performed for the sales item 628. Ifthere are additional sales items to be processed in the salestransaction 632, a next sales item is selected 636, and the processreturns to resolving the appropriate pricing method for the sales item624 and performing the pricing method for the sales item 628.

When there are no further sales items for processing in the salestransaction, the process may proceed to aggregation of the pricingresults 640 and reporting of the aggregated pricing results to theclient or other action relating to the aggregated pricing results 644.

The examples illustrating the use of technology disclosed herein shouldnot be taken as limiting or preferred. The examples are intended tosufficiently illustrate the technology disclosed without being overlycomplicated and are not intended to illustrate all of the technologiesdisclosed. A person having ordinary skill in the art will appreciatethat there are many potential applications for one or moreimplementations of this disclosure and hence, the implementationsdisclosed herein are not intended to limit this disclosure in anyfashion.

One or more implementations may be implemented in numerous ways,including as a process, an apparatus, a system, a device, a method, acomputer readable medium such as a computer readable storage mediumcontaining computer readable instructions or computer program code, oras a computer program product comprising a computer usable medium havinga computer readable program code embodied therein.

Other implementations may include a non-transitory computer readablestorage medium storing instructions executable by a processor to performa method as described above. Yet another implementation may include asystem including memory and one or more processors operable to executeinstructions, stored in the memory, to perform a method as describedabove.

Implementations may include:

In some embodiments, one or more non-transitory computer-readablestorage mediums having stored thereon executable computer programinstructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause theone or more processors to perform operations including installing aplurality of pricing methods at a pricing service, the pricing serviceincluding a pluggable architecture to accept the plurality of pricingmethods, each pricing method of the plurality of pricing methodincluding a set of pricing functions; receiving at the pricing service apricing request from a first client for a sales transaction includingone or more sales items, the pricing request including a pricing contextfor each of the one or more sales items; and performing a pricecalculation for the sales transaction, including resolving a pricingmethod for each sales item of the one or more sales items from theplurality of pricing methods, applying the set of pricing functions forthe resolved pricing method for each sales item, wherein the applicationof the set of pricing functions is based at least in part on the pricingcontext for the sales item, calculating a price for each sales itembased upon an outcome of the set of pricing functions, and aggregatingthe calculated prices for each of the one or more sales items.

In some embodiments, a system includes one or more processors forprocessing of data; an application programming interface (API) toreceive pricing requests from one or more clients; and a pricingservice, the pricing service including a pluggable architecture forinstallation of a plurality of pricing methods at a pricing service,each pricing method of the plurality of pricing method including a setof pricing functions, wherein, in response to receiving a pricingrequests for a sales transaction from a first client, the salestransaction including one or more sales items and including a pricingcontext for each of the one or more sales items, the system is toperform a price calculation for each of the one or more sales items,including the system to resolve a pricing method for each sales itemfrom the plurality of pricing methods, apply the set of pricingfunctions for the resolved pricing function for each sales item, whereinthe application of the set of pricing functions is based at least inpart on the pricing context for the sales item, calculate a price foreach sales item based upon an outcome of the set of pricing functions,and aggregate the calculated prices for each of the one or more salesitems.

In some embodiments, a method includes installing a plurality of pricingmethods at a pricing service, the pricing service including a pluggablearchitecture to accept the plurality of pricing methods, each pricingmethod of the plurality of pricing method including a set of pricingfunctions; receiving at the pricing service a pricing request from afirst client for a sales transaction including one or more sales items,the pricing request including a pricing context for each of the one ormore sales items; resolving a pricing method for each sales item of theone or more sales items from the plurality of pricing methods; applyingthe set of pricing functions for the resolved pricing method for eachsales item of the one or more sales items, wherein the application ofthe set of pricing functions is based at least in part on the pricingcontext for the sales item; calculating a price for each sales itembased upon an outcome of the set of pricing functions for the resolvedpricing method; and aggregating the calculated prices for each of theone or more sales items.

FIG. 7 illustrates a block diagram of an environment in which apluggable architecture for performance of pricing operations may beimplemented according to some embodiments. In some embodiments, theenvironment 710 includes a pluggable architecture for performance ofpricing operations, such as illustrated in FIGS. 1-6, including apricing service 719, such as pricing service 120 illustrated in FIGS.1-3. The environment 710 may include user systems 712, network 714,system 716, processor system 717, application platform 718, networkinterface 720, tenant data storage 722, system data storage 724, programcode 726, and process space 728. In other embodiments, environment 710may not have all of the components listed and/or may have other elementsinstead of, or in addition to, those listed above.

Environment 710 is an environment in which an on-demand database serviceexists. User system 712 may be any machine or system that is used by auser to access a database user system. For example, any of user systems712 can be a handheld computing device, a smart phone, a laptop ortablet computer, a work station, and/or a network of computing devices.As illustrated in herein FIG. 7 and in more detail in FIG. 8, usersystems 712 may interact via a network 714 with an on-demand databaseservice, such as system 716.

An on-demand database service, such as system 716, is a database systemthat is made available to outside users that do not need to necessarilybe concerned with building and/or maintaining the database system, butinstead may be available for their use when the users need the databasesystem (e.g., on the demand of the users). Some on-demand databaseservices may store information from one or more tenants stored intotables of a common database image to form a multi-tenant database system(MTS). Accordingly, “on-demand database service 716” and “system 716”may be used interchangeably herein. A database image may include one ormore database objects. A relational database management system (RDMS) orthe equivalent may execute storage and retrieval of information againstthe database object(s). Application platform 718 may be a framework thatallows the applications of system 716 to run, such as the hardwareand/or software, e.g., the operating system. In an embodiment, on-demanddatabase service 716 may include an application platform 718 thatenables creation, managing and executing one or more applicationsdeveloped by the provider of the on-demand database service, usersaccessing the on-demand database service via user systems 712, orthird-party application developers accessing the on-demand databaseservice via user systems 712.

The users of user systems 712 may differ in their respective capacities,and the capacity of a particular user system 712 might be entirelydetermined by permissions (permission levels) for the current user. Forexample, where a salesperson is using a particular user system 712 tointeract with system 716, that user system has the capacities allottedto that salesperson. However, while an administrator is using that usersystem to interact with system 716, that user system has the capacitiesallotted to that administrator. In systems with a hierarchical rolemodel, users at one permission level may have access to applications,data, and database information accessible by a lower permission leveluser, but may not have access to certain applications, databaseinformation, and data accessible by a user at a higher permission level.Thus, different users will have different capabilities with regard toaccessing and modifying application and database information, dependingon a user's security or permission level.

Network 714 is any network or combination of networks of devices thatcommunicate with one another. For example, network 714 can be any one orany combination of a LAN (local area network), WAN (wide area network),telephone network, wireless network, point-to-point network, starnetwork, token ring network, hub network, or other appropriateconfiguration. As the most common type of computer network in currentuse is a TCP/IP (Transfer Control Protocol and Internet Protocol)network, such as the global internetwork of networks often referred toas the “Internet” with a capital “I,” that network will be used in manyof the examples herein. However, it should be understood that thenetworks that one or more implementations might use are not so limited,although TCP/IP is a frequently implemented protocol.

User systems 712 might communicate with system 716 using TCP/IP and, ata higher network level, use other common Internet protocols tocommunicate, such as HTTP, FTP, AFS, WAP, etc. In an example where HTTPis used, user system 712 might include an HTTP client commonly referredto as a “browser” for sending and receiving HTTP messages to and from anHTTP server at system 716. Such an HTTP server might be implemented asthe sole network interface between system 716 and network 714, but othertechniques might be used as well or instead. In some implementations,the interface between system 716 and network 714 includes load sharingfunctionality, such as round-robin HTTP request distributors to balanceloads and distribute incoming HTTP requests evenly over a plurality ofservers. At least as for the users that are accessing that server, eachof the plurality of servers has access to the MTS' data; however, otheralternative configurations may be used instead.

In one embodiment, system 716, shown in FIG. 7, implements a web-basedcustomer relationship management (CRM) system. For example, in oneembodiment, system 716 includes application servers configured toimplement and execute CRM software applications as well as providerelated data, code, forms, webpages and other information to and fromuser systems 712 and to store to, and retrieve from, a database systemrelated data, objects, and Webpage content. With a multi-tenant system,data for multiple tenants may be stored in the same physical databaseobject, however, tenant data typically is arranged so that data of onetenant is kept logically separate from that of other tenants so that onetenant does not have access to another tenant's data, unless such datais expressly shared. In certain embodiments, system 716 implementsapplications other than, or in addition to, a CRM application. Forexample, system 716 may provide tenant access to multiple hosted(standard and custom) applications, including a CRM application. User(or third-party developer) applications, which may or may not includeCRM, may be supported by the application platform 718, which managescreation, storage of the applications into one or more database objectsand executing of the applications in a virtual machine in the processspace of the system 716.

One arrangement for elements of system 716 is shown in FIG. 7, includinga network interface 720, application platform 718, tenant data storage722 for tenant data 723, system data storage 724 for system data 725accessible to system 716 and possibly multiple tenants, program code 726for implementing various functions of system 716, and a process space728 for executing MTS system processes and tenant-specific processes,such as running applications as part of an application hosting service.Additional processes that may execute on system 716 include databaseindexing processes.

Several elements in the system shown in FIG. 7 include conventional,well-known elements that are explained only briefly here. For example,each user system 712 could include a desktop personal computer,workstation, laptop or tablet computer, smart phone, or any wirelessaccess protocol (WAP) enabled device or any other computing devicecapable of interfacing directly or indirectly to the Internet or othernetwork connection. User system 712 typically runs an HTTP client, e.g.,a browsing program (also referred to as a web browser or browser), suchas Edge or Internet Explorer from Microsoft, Safari from Apple, Chromefrom Google, Firefox from Mozilla, or a WAP-enabled browser in the caseof a smart phone or other wireless device, or the like, allowing a user(e.g., subscriber of the multi-tenant database system) of user system712 to access, process and view information, pages and applicationsavailable to it from system 716 over network 714. Each user system 712also typically includes one or more user interface devices, such as akeyboard, a mouse, touch pad, touch screen, pen, voice interface,gesture recognition interface, or the like, for interacting with agraphical user interface (GUI) provided by the browser on a display(e.g., a monitor screen, LCD display, etc.) in conjunction with pages,forms, applications and other information provided by system 716 orother systems or servers. For example, the user interface device can beused to access data and applications hosted by system 716, and toperform searches on stored data, and otherwise allow a user to interactwith various GUI pages that may be presented to a user. As discussedabove, embodiments are suitable for use with the Internet, which refersto a specific global internetwork of networks. However, it should beunderstood that other networks can be used instead of the Internet, suchas an intranet, an extranet, a virtual private network (VPN), anon-TCP/IP based network, any LAN or WAN or the like.

According to one embodiment, each user system 712 and all of itscomponents are operator configurable using applications, such as abrowser, including computer code run using a central processing unitsuch as an Intel Core series processor or the like. Similarly, system716 (and additional instances of an MTS, where more than one is present)and all of their components might be operator configurable usingapplication(s) including computer code to run using a central processingunit such as processor system 717, which may include an Intel Coreseries processor or the like, and/or multiple processor units. Acomputer program product embodiment includes a machine-readable storagemedium (media) having instructions stored thereon/in which can be usedto program a computer to perform any of the processes of the embodimentsdescribed herein. Computer code for operating and configuring system 716to intercommunicate and to process webpages, applications and other dataand media content as described herein are preferably downloaded andstored on a hard disk or solid state drive (SSD), but the entire programcode, or portions thereof, may also be stored in any other volatile ornon-volatile memory medium or device as is well known, such as a ROM orRAM, or provided on any media capable of storing program code, such asany type of rotating media including floppy disks, optical discs,digital versatile disk (DVD), compact disk (CD), microdrive, andmagneto-optical disks, and magnetic or optical cards, nanosystems(including molecular memory ICs), or any type of media or devicesuitable for storing instructions and/or data. Additionally, the entireprogram code, or portions thereof, may be transmitted and downloadedfrom a software source over a transmission medium, e.g., over theInternet, or from another server, as is well known, or transmitted overany other conventional network connection as is well known (e.g.,extranet, VPN, LAN, etc.) using any communication medium and protocols(e.g., TCP/IP, HTTP, HTTPS, Ethernet, etc.) as are well known. It willalso be appreciated that computer code for implementing embodiments canbe implemented in any programming language that can be executed on aclient system and/or server or server system such as, for example, C,C++, HTML, any other markup language, Java™ JavaScript, ActiveX, anyother scripting language, such as VBScript, and many other programminglanguages as are well known may be used. (Java™ is a trademark of SunMicrosystems, Inc.).

According to one embodiment, each system 716 is configured to providewebpages, forms, applications, data and media content to user (client)systems 712 to support the access by user systems 712 as tenants ofsystem 716. As such, system 716 provides security mechanisms to keepeach tenant's data separate unless the data is shared. If more than oneMTS is used, they may be located in close proximity to one another(e.g., in a server farm located in a single building or campus), or theymay be distributed at locations remote from one another (e.g., one ormore servers located in city A and one or more servers located in cityB). As used herein, each MTS could include one or more logically and/orphysically connected servers distributed locally or across one or moregeographic locations. Additionally, the term “server” is meant toinclude a computer system, including processing hardware and processspace(s), and an associated storage system and database application(e.g., OODBMS or RDBMS) as is well known in the art. It should also beunderstood that “server system” and “server” are often usedinterchangeably herein. Similarly, the database object described hereincan be implemented as single databases, a distributed database, acollection of distributed databases, a database with redundant online oroffline backups or other redundancies, etc., and might include adistributed database or storage network and associated processingintelligence.

FIG. 8 illustrates further details of an environment in which apluggable architecture for performance of pricing operations may beimplemented according to some embodiments. FIG. 8 provides furtherdetail regarding elements of system 716. In addition, variousinterconnections in an embodiment are provided. FIG. 8 shows that usersystem 712 may include processor system 712A, memory system 712B, inputsystem 712C, and output system 712D. FIG. 8 shows network 714 and system716. FIG. 8 also shows that system 716 may include tenant data storage722, tenant data 723, system data storage 724, system data 725, UserInterface (UI) 830, Application Programming Interface (API) 832, PL/SOQL834, save routines 836, application setup mechanism 838, applicationsservers 800 ₁-800 _(N), system process space 802, tenant process spaces804, tenant management process space 810, tenant storage area 812, userstorage 814, and application metadata 816. In other embodiments,environment 710 may not have the same elements as those listed aboveand/or may have other elements instead of, or in addition to, thoselisted above.

User system 712, network 714, system 716, tenant data storage 722, andsystem data storage 724 were discussed above in FIG. 7. Regarding usersystem 712, processor system 712A may be any combination of one or moreprocessors. Memory system 712B may be any combination of one or morememory devices, short term, and/or long-term memory. Input system 712Cmay be any combination of input devices, such as one or more keyboards,mice, trackballs, scanners, cameras, and/or interfaces to networks.Output system 712D may be any combination of output devices, such as oneor more monitors, printers, and/or interfaces to networks. As shown byFIG. 8, system 716 may include a network interface 720 (of FIG. 7)implemented as a set of HTTP application servers 800, an applicationplatform 718, tenant data storage 722, and system data storage 724. Alsoshown is system process space 802, including individual tenant processspaces 804 and a tenant management process space 810. Each applicationserver 800 may be configured to tenant data storage 722 and the tenantdata 723 therein, and system data storage 724 and the system data 725therein to serve requests of user systems 712. The tenant data 723 mightbe divided into individual tenant storage areas 812, which can be eithera physical arrangement and/or a logical arrangement of data. Within eachtenant storage area 812, user storage 814 and application metadata 816might be similarly allocated for each user. For example, a copy of auser's most recently used (MRU) items might be stored to user storage814. Similarly, a copy of MRU items for an entire organization that is atenant might be stored to tenant storage area 812. A UI 830 provides auser interface and an API 832 provides an application programmerinterface to system 716 resident processes to users and/or developers atuser systems 712. The tenant data and the system data may be stored invarious databases, such as one or more Oracle™ databases.

Application platform 718 includes an application setup mechanism 838that supports application developers' creation and management ofapplications, which may be saved as metadata into tenant data storage722 by save routines 836 for execution by subscribers as one or moretenant process spaces 804 managed by tenant management process 810 forexample. Invocations to such applications may be coded using PL/SOQL 834that provides a programming language style interface extension to API832. A detailed description of some PL/SOQL language embodiments isdiscussed in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 7,730,478 entitled, “Methodand System for Allowing Access to Developed Applicants via aMulti-Tenant Database On-Demand Database Service”, issued Jun. 1, 2010to Craig Weissman, which is incorporated in its entirety herein for allpurposes. Invocations to applications may be detected by one or moresystem processes, which manage retrieving application metadata 816 forthe subscriber making the invocation and executing the metadata as anapplication in a virtual machine.

Each application server 800 may be communicably coupled to databasesystems, e.g., having access to system data 725 and tenant data 723, viaa different network connection. For example, one application server 800₁ might be coupled via the network 714 (e.g., the Internet), anotherapplication server 800 _(N-1) might be coupled via a direct networklink, and another application server 800 _(N) might be coupled by yet adifferent network connection. Transfer Control Protocol and InternetProtocol (TCP/IP) are typical protocols for communicating betweenapplication servers 800 and the database system. However, it will beapparent to one skilled in the art that other transport protocols may beused to optimize the system depending on the network interconnect used.

In certain embodiments, each application server 800 is configured tohandle requests for any user associated with any organization that is atenant. Because it is desirable to be able to add and remove applicationservers from the server pool at any time for any reason, there ispreferably no server affinity for a user and/or organization to aspecific application server 800. In one embodiment, therefore, aninterface system implementing a load balancing function (e.g., an F5BIG-IP load balancer) is communicably coupled between the applicationservers 800 and the user systems 712 to distribute requests to theapplication servers 800. In one embodiment, the load balancer uses aleast connections algorithm to route user requests to the applicationservers 800. Other examples of load balancing algorithms, such as roundrobin and observed response time, also can be used. For example, incertain embodiments, three consecutive requests from the same user couldhit three different application servers 800, and three requests fromdifferent users could hit the same application server 800. In thismanner, system 716 is multi-tenant, wherein system 716 handles storageof, and access to, different objects, data and applications acrossdisparate users and organizations.

As an example of storage, one tenant might be a company that employs asales force where each salesperson uses system 716 to manage their salesprocess. Thus, a user might maintain contact data, leads data, customerfollow-up data, performance data, goals and progress data, etc., allapplicable to that user's personal sales process (e.g., in tenant datastorage 722). In an example of an MTS arrangement, since all of the dataand the applications to access, view, modify, report, transmit,calculate, etc., can be maintained and accessed by a user system havingnothing more than network access, the user can manage his or her salesefforts and cycles from any of many different user systems. For example,if a salesperson is visiting a customer and the customer has Internetaccess in their lobby, the salesperson can obtain critical updates as tothat customer while waiting for the customer to arrive in the lobby.

While each user's data might be separate from other users' dataregardless of the employers of each user, some data might beorganization-wide data shared or accessible by a plurality of users orall of the users for a given organization that is a tenant. Thus, theremight be some data structures managed by system 716 that are allocatedat the tenant level while other data structures might be managed at theuser level. Because an MTS might support multiple tenants includingpossible competitors, the MTS should have security protocols that keepdata, applications, and application use separate. Also, because manytenants may opt for access to an MTS rather than maintain their ownsystem, redundancy, up-time, and backup are additional functions thatmay be implemented in the MTS. In addition to user-specific data andtenant specific data, system 716 might also maintain system level datausable by multiple tenants or other data. Such system level data mightinclude industry reports, news, postings, and the like that are sharableamong tenants.

In certain embodiments, user systems 712 (which may be client systems)communicate with application servers 800 to request and updatesystem-level and tenant-level data from system 716 that may requiresending one or more queries to tenant data storage 722 and/or systemdata storage 724. System 716 (e.g., an application server 800 in system716) automatically generates one or more SQL statements (e.g., one ormore SQL queries) that are designed to access the desired information.System data storage 724 may generate query plans to access the requesteddata from the database.

Each database can generally be viewed as a collection of objects, suchas a set of logical tables, containing data fitted into predefinedcategories. A “table” is one representation of a data object and may beused herein to simplify the conceptual description of objects and customobjects. It should be understood that “table” and “object” may be usedinterchangeably herein. Each table generally contains one or more datacategories logically arranged as columns or fields in a viewable schema.Each row or record of a table contains an instance of data for eachcategory defined by the fields. For example, a CRM database may includea table that describes a customer with fields for basic contactinformation such as name, address, phone number, fax number, etc.Another table might describe a purchase order, including fields forinformation such as customer, product, sale price, date, etc. In somemulti-tenant database systems, standard entity tables might be providedfor use by all tenants. For CRM database applications, such standardentities might include tables for Account, Contact, Lead, andOpportunity data, each containing pre-defined fields. It should beunderstood that the word “entity” may also be used interchangeablyherein with “object” and “table”.

In some multi-tenant database systems, tenants may be allowed to createand store custom objects, or they may be allowed to customize standardentities or objects, for example by creating custom fields for standardobjects, including custom index fields. U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/817,161, filed Apr. 2, 2004, with U.S. Pat. No. 7,779,039, entitled“Custom Entities and Fields in a Multi-Tenant Database System”, andwhich is hereby incorporated herein by reference, teaches systems andmethods for creating custom objects as well as customizing standardobjects in a multi-tenant database system. In certain embodiments, forexample, all custom entity data rows are stored in a single multi-tenantphysical table, which may contain multiple logical tables perorganization. It is transparent to customers that their multiple“tables” are in fact stored in one large table or that their data may bestored in the same table as the data of other customers.

Embodiments may be provided, for example, as a computer program productwhich may include one or more machine-readable media (including anon-transitory machine-readable or computer-readable storage medium)having stored thereon machine-executable instructions that, whenexecuted by one or more machines such as a computer, network ofcomputers, or other electronic devices, may result in the one or moremachines carrying out operations in accordance with embodimentsdescribed herein. A machine-readable medium may include, but is notlimited to, floppy diskettes, optical disks, CD-ROMs (Compact Disc-ReadOnly Memories), and magneto-optical disks, ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs (ErasableProgrammable Read Only Memories), EEPROMs (Electrically ErasableProgrammable Read Only Memories), magnetic tape, magnetic or opticalcards, flash memory, or other type of media/machine-readable mediumsuitable for storing machine-executable instructions.

Moreover, embodiments may be downloaded as a computer program product,wherein the program may be transferred from a remote computer (e.g., aserver) to a requesting computer (e.g., a client) by way of one or moredata signals embodied in and/or modulated by a carrier wave or otherpropagation medium via a communication link (e.g., a modem and/ornetwork connection).

It is to be noted that terms like “node”, “computing node”, “server”,“server device”, “cloud computer”, “cloud server”, “cloud servercomputer”, “machine”, “host machine”, “device”, “computing device”,“computer”, “computing system”, and the like, may be usedinterchangeably throughout this document. It is to be further noted thatterms like “application”, “software application”, “program”, “softwareprogram”, “package”, “software package”, and the like, may be usedinterchangeably throughout this document. Also, terms like “job”,“input”, “request”, “message”, and the like, may be used interchangeablythroughout this document.

Reference in the specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment”means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic describedin connection with the embodiment is included in at least oneembodiment. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in variousplaces in the specification are not necessarily all referring to thesame embodiment.

While concepts been described in terms of several embodiments, thoseskilled in the art will recognize that embodiments not limited to theembodiments described but can be practiced with modification andalteration within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. Thedescription is thus to be regarded as illustrative instead of limiting.

What is claimed is:
 1. One or more non-transitory computer-readablestorage mediums having stored thereon executable computer programinstructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause theone or more processors to perform operations comprising: installing aplurality of pricing methods at a pricing service, the pricing serviceincluding a pluggable architecture to accept the plurality of pricingmethods, each pricing method of the plurality of pricing methodincluding a set of pricing functions; receiving at the pricing service apricing request from a first client for a sales transaction includingone or more sales items, the pricing request including a pricing contextfor each of the one or more sales items; and performing a pricecalculation for the sales transaction, including: resolving a pricingmethod for each sales item of the one or more sales items from theplurality of pricing methods, applying the set of pricing functions forthe resolved pricing method for each sales item, wherein application ofthe set of pricing functions is based at least in part on the pricingcontext for the sales item, calculating a price for each sales itembased upon an outcome of the set of pricing functions, and aggregatingthe calculated prices for each of the one or more sales items.
 2. Theone or more storage mediums of claim 1, wherein the plurality of pricingmethods includes: one or more standard pricing methods for use bymultiple clients; and one or more custom pricing methods for the firstclient.
 3. The one or more storage mediums of claim 2, wherein eachpricing function of a set of pricing functions of a pricing methoddefines a single process within the pricing method.
 4. The one or morestorage mediums of claim 3, wherein each pricing function is defined incode.
 5. The one or more storage mediums of claim 4, wherein the pricingfunctions of the one or more standard pricing methods are coded in afirst format and the pricing functions of the one or more custom pricingfunctions are coded in a second format.
 6. The one or more storagemediums of claim 2, wherein the one or more custom pricing methodsinclude one or more custom pricing functions.
 7. The one or more storagemediums of claim 1, wherein the pricing service is a portion of aplatform, the platform including an application programming interface(API) to receive pricing requests.
 8. The one or more storage mediums ofclaim 1, wherein the instructions further include instructions forreporting the aggregated pricing to the first client.
 9. A systemcomprising: one or more processors for processing of data; anapplication programming interface (API) to receive pricing requests fromone or more clients; and a pricing service, the pricing serviceincluding a pluggable architecture for installation of a plurality ofpricing methods at a pricing service, each pricing method of theplurality of pricing method including a set of pricing functions;wherein, in response to receiving a pricing requests for a salestransaction from a first client, the sales transaction including one ormore sales items and including a pricing context for each of the one ormore sales items, the system is to perform a price calculation for eachof the one or more sales items, including the system to: resolve apricing method for each sales item from the plurality of pricingmethods, apply the set of pricing functions for the resolved pricingfunction for each sales item, wherein the application of the set ofpricing functions is based at least in part on the pricing context forthe sales item, calculate a price for each sales item based upon anoutcome of the set of pricing functions, and aggregate the calculatedprices for each of the one or more sales items.
 10. The system of claim9, wherein the plurality of pricing methods includes: one or morestandard pricing methods for use by multiple clients; and one or morecustom pricing methods for the first client.
 11. The system of claim 10,wherein each pricing function of a set of pricing functions of a pricingmethod defines a single process within the pricing method.
 12. Thesystem of claim 10, wherein the one or more custom pricing methodsinclude one or more custom pricing functions.
 13. The system of claim 9,wherein the pricing service does not have knowledge of pricingalgorithms for the plurality of pricing methods.
 14. A methodcomprising: installing a plurality of pricing methods at a pricingservice, the pricing service including a pluggable architecture toaccept the plurality of pricing methods, each pricing method of theplurality of pricing method including a set of pricing functions;receiving at the pricing service a pricing request from a first clientfor a sales transaction including one or more sales items, the pricingrequest including a pricing context for each of the one or more salesitems; resolving a pricing method for each sales item of the one or moresales items from the plurality of pricing methods; applying the set ofpricing functions for the resolved pricing method for each sales item ofthe one or more sales items, wherein application of the set of pricingfunctions is based at least in part on the pricing context for the salesitem; calculating a price for each sales item based upon an outcome ofthe set of pricing functions for the resolved pricing method; andaggregating the calculated prices for each of the one or more salesitems.
 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the plurality of pricingmethods includes: one or more standard pricing methods for use bymultiple clients; and one or more custom pricing methods for the firstclient.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein each pricing function of aset of pricing functions of a pricing method defines a single processwithin the pricing method.
 17. The method of claim 15, wherein the oneor more custom pricing methods include one or more custom pricingfunctions.
 18. The method of claim 14, wherein the pricing service is aportion of a platform, the platform including an application programminginterface (API) to receive pricing requests.
 19. The method of claim 14,further comprising reporting the aggregated pricing to the first client.